“Ribbit!”

  Alnea came back to his senses from the frog’s grunt, if it could even be called as grunt anymore, before wiping away the frog’s mucus like spit away from his face. Despite the shield of the Blood Spirit Tear blocking the frog’s advance, its loud croak still managed to somehow send its shrilling voice, along with its disgusting bodily fluids directly to his face. Maybe because the shield did not consider the frog’s spit as its attack.

  He would have to work on that part of the Blood Spirit Tear later, Alnea thought, as he shifted his attention to the frog. After failing to swallow him in gulp, the frog let out a loud shriek, and jumped out of the swamp, splattering mud all around in its wake. Including his face, which he had just cleaned. Thankfully, the barrier considered the larger blobs of mud as attacks, and stopped them from reaching him.

  Still, by the time the frog landed back into the swamp, his face had already been splashed with mud, which became even worse when the frog landed back into the swamp, creating a wave of sorts that drenched his entire body in mud. Not that there were many places left untouched before anyway. Wiping the mud form his face once again, Alnea looked towards the frog once again.

  A giant frog, Alnea noted, that seemed larger than even some two storey buildings he had seen back in Anneve. Just the part of its body above the swamp was at least three to four times as large as him. And that was when it had not stretched out in its jump. Origin knew how it managed to jump so high when being submerged by the swamp. Maybe, it was because most of its leg, particularly its thighs, which seemed to at least thrice as wide as him, were above the swamp.

  Regardless, the frog seemed to be around seven to eight metres tall, and half as wide, sporting greyish spots all over its dark green back. Most important of all, it seemed to be rather aggressive. Despite having confirmed that its attacks were not working, it just retreated a little, before opening its mouth, and shooting out its tongue. A rather ridiculously large tongue, that even when stretched as far as five metres, was still not completely unfurled. Though it still hit the blood red barrier with a greater force than the frog’s earlier attack.

  In any case, the frog was truly gigantic. And aggressive. Coupled with its physical appearance, and the illusion that he suffered a few moments ago, Alnea quickly came up with a name in his mind. Green Phantom Frog. No wonder he was still in the swamp. The greenish fog also made much more sense than before. As did his slightly incoherent actions earlier. Fortunately, he had prepared for such situations in advance, or else, he would have been in the frog’s stomach by then.

  Though his Fortune was not going to last for long, Alnea thought, as he glanced at the blood red shield, flickering under the relentless attacks of the Phantom Frog. Subduing all his thoughts back into his Heart, Alnea quickly took a quick review of his own situation. His sword, still in its sheath, was not exactly the best weapon to be used in his current situation. And though he could use his dagger, it would not provide much help against the Phantom Frog.

  He could ignore the mud covering his face and hands for the moment, but what was he to do about the swamp hindering his movements? If he used Golden Yearning in his situation, then it would only be good for throwing at the frog. Yet, Phantom Frogs were known for their Innate Ability of using their environment to create elaborate illusions to trap their prey, and then swallow them whole. Throwing a dagger at the frog would be akin to throwing his dagger away for nothing, and maybe even letting the frog use it against him.

  Since the abilities of Warriors were not suitable for his current situation, the next best option would have been to use his Glyphs. No, against enemies like Phantom Frogs, using his Glyphs would have been the best option regardless of any conditions. After all, of all his means, it was his Glyphs that held the most destructive powers. Especially his Glyph Arrays, both the ones he had learned, and the ones he had created.

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  If he wished to use his Glyphs though, he would first have to fetch his storage pouch from deep in the swap, and then reach into his pouch to retrieve his Glyph Tools. As if that was not enough, with the thick, viscous waters of the swamp coming up to chest, he would have to carve his Glyphs in a very uncomfortable pose, which might affect the quality and integrity of his Glyphs…

  Since his options had been ruled out by his situation, Alnea did not waste time hesitating about what to do, and leapt right into action. Reaching into the depths of his Spirit World, he pulled on his Roots, summoning Oren from the Origin Sea, while also calling upon the Mysteries lying dormant in his Domain.

  “In the threads weaving through the worlds…”

  When deciding what Arcana to use, the first thing that Alnea thought of was not how to kill the frog, but how to hold it down. After all, despite looking larger than a house, it was faster than even some of the agility oriented Advanced phase Oren Beasts he had encountered in his adventures. If he could not even hold the frog down, he could forget about taking it down.

  “Hiding in the folds of existence…”

  Alnea, however, as an Arcanist, just happened to specialise on the path of restraining his enemies. And after more than a year of experience, he had become particularly refined in his craft. Especially after coming to the Lost City. From casting illusions to altogether changing his environment, and even controlling gravity, he had mastered a myriad of means to control and restrain all kinds of enemies.

  “I call upon the Origin around me…”

  Of his various means though, he obviously could not use his illusions to restrain the Phantom Frog. After all, the latter was a master of illusions itself. And the frog was not the kind of beast to be restrained by just inducing darkness or light in their environment. Though given how heavy and bulky the frog was, those Arcanas would not have been his first choice anyway. Especially since he just happened to have raised his Arcanas of the Gravity series to the Advanced Stage recently.

  “To shower unto the world, Yuri’s Dominance.”

  The moment that Alnea finished chanting, guiding the Mysteries of the Gravity to manifest around him, strange undulations spread around him with him as their centre, creating a forcefield of ten times the usual gravity, suppressing everything within a radius of ten metres. Even the swamp itself. At the very least, he could see the surface of the swamp being visibly lowered by a couple of inches.

  Immediately after, the surrounding waters rushed in to fill the void, but they did not make much difference. On the contrary, as more and more water rushed in, the entire swamp’s level got suppressed by a few inches. Even the fog, which had been churning violently since the appearance of the frog, was suppressed to the swamp’s surface in the form of a thick blanket, clearing the air of all the noxious gas, which the frog had used to earlier to force him into its illusion.

  “Lingering within his Shadows, shining with her Light…”

  Meanwhile, the frog itself just hunched over a little. Probably by half a metre or so. Compared to him, was still a massive giant, that could swallow him whole. Even if he had effectively sealed the beast’s ability to cast illusions, just its large size and terrifying strength alone made it one of the most dangerous Oren Beasts he had faced yet.

  “The faint breath, that hides within our sight…”

  Still, he could see signs of pain and pressure showing on the beast’s face. Especially when it tried to pierce through his blood red shield with its tongue. Not only had its attack slowed down, even the force with which it was attacking had decreased visibly, barely leaving behind any tremors on the shield. It seemed, that victory was just within his reach. Except, it was not.

  “Let the world bear witness to your might…”

  The Phantom Frog was just supressed, not dead. It was still relentlessly attacking his shield, wearing it down with each passing moment. So, instead of relaxing, the moment that Alnea summoned the Gravity Field, he went ahead and began casting another Arcana. One of his newer creations, inspired by the concept of Blood Arcanas and Glyphs. And his second experiment of combining Mysteries from two different lineages.

  “And bring unto us—

  The Sorrow of Night.